Presidential candidates have been criticized for not coming up with viable
plans on how to reform the politically powerful Indonesian Military (TNI).

Analysts and a former chief strategist of the TNI said on Saturday that none
of the presidential candidates had given sufficient space to this issue in their
campaign manifesto and were inclined to take the current relations between the
civilian government and the military for granted.

"All candidates were (largely) silent on the issue and tended to
sanctify the TNI's position in the present political arrangement, as if they
want to take advantage of the current situation," Salim Said told a
discussion held by the General Elections Commission (KPU) data center.

He said although some of the candidates had floated ideas of dissolving the
TNI's territorial command, none had solutions for what to do with the TNI
soldiers stationed throughout the country.

Salim said the candidates -- including those with military backgrounds --
never said at what level the TNI should be relegated to in government.

While a civilian government ruled the country and the TNI had vowed to start
reforming itself from within, little had changed in the way the military
performed in its daily affairs, he said.

Political analyst Andi Alfian Mallarangeng said the next administration,
which would have a direct mandate from the people, should immediately start
reforming the TNI.

"I think the next government should take a drastic approach by putting
the TNI and the National Police under the control of the Ministry of Defense and
Ministry of Home Affairs respectively, so that the two security institutions
would be effectively under the control of civilian authorities," he said.

Andi stressed the next government should do its best to put an end to all
business practices conducted by the TNI and its individual members.

"Our military will not function well defending the country's territorial
integrity if it is mired in business activities. Besides, the business only
enriches the generals, while the foot soldiers continue to suffer," he
said.

Former TNI chief of territorial affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Agus Widjojo said the
military would not defy attempts to put it under civilian control.

"We, the soldiers who have been trained professionally, will always bow
to civilian authority. However, there has to be a clear-cut definition about our
role," he told the same discussion.

Agus also called on politicians not to woo the military in their campaigns.

"Two top civilian politicians -- Amien Rais and Akbar Tandjung -- have
helped pass an article in Law No. 3/2002 on defense that authorizes the TNI
chief to deploy troops without presidential consent," he said

The law contradicted the state constitution, which stipulated that only the
President, as the TNI supreme commander, had the right to deploy troops, he
said.

Joyo Indonesia News Service was started in July 1996, at a time when the
Indonesian media was tightly censored and news critical of the government was
banned. The service used e-mail to pierce the government's censorship blockade
and distribute news to thousands of activists and Indonesia-watchers inside the
country and around the world. Many of the items sent by Joyo were translated
into bahasa and widely circulated among students, activists, academics,
journalists, business executives, diplomats, and others.

The name 'Joyo' is derived from the twelfth century Javanese (Kadiri Dynasty)
king Joyoboyo (sometimes spelled Jayabaya or Djajabhaja), known in Indonesia as
'the Nostradamus of Java.' Joyoboyo is said to have predicted with uncanny
accuracy many key events in subsequent Javanese and Indonesian history; and it
was during his reign that the best known Javanese epic poem was written, the
Bharata-Yuddha.

The service has operated on a virtually uninterrupted 7/24/365 basis for
nearly nine years (not a single day has been missed since Aug. '98) -- during
which time it has distributed more than 250,000 articles, transcripts, op-ed
pieces, reports, studies and other information about Indonesia. In recent years,
coverage

has been expanded to include daily bundles on business/economy, as well as
regional and international affairs.

In spite of the myriad difficulties involved in keeping the service going,
and the preponderance of negative, oftentimes heartbreaking news -- the Joyo
team has managed to persevere and stay motivated because so many subscribers and
other readers have come to depend on the service as an essential source of
information about Indonesia and the region.

Over the years, we have derived much personal satisfaction from providing a
useful service to such a dynamic and diverse community of Indonesia-watchers;
and it has been fascinating to witness the history of one of the world's largest
and most important countries unfold in such intimate detail -- as it undergoes a
difficult national transformation that has significant geopolitical and economic
implications for the region and the world.

While we know that none of our readers takes us for granted, some appear to
have the mistaken impression that Joyo is a machine and everything we do is
automated. The nuts-and-bolts of the operation, involving a prodigious amount of
work, are largely invisible to its users.

This is a manual operation assisted by computer technology. Each individual
article is selected, reformatted, and dispatched by a dedicated, generally
sentient human being. We don't just sweep the whole Internet blindly. We
carefully choose each item based on content, timeliness, source, and other
factors. For every article we distribute, we reject 8-10 others. It's a
laborious, time consuming process. But there's no other way to ensure that Joyo
maintains its usefulness and relevance for its subscribers and other readers.

In July 2004, Joyo will be starting its ninth year of service. During this
entire time, it has been an incessant struggle to keep the service going on a
free-of-charge basis. Several times the service has teetered on the brink of
closure, only to be rescued in the eleventh hour by the fortuitous interventions
of subscribers who stepped forward to offer their kind and generous support.

We pledge to maintain Joyo as a free service. Uncompromised, unmanipulated,
unfettered exchange of information is Joyo's bedrock principle. We will never
become the exclusive servant of an elite audience. But the service must achieve
a firm financial footing so it can continue in the months and years ahead;
otherwise our ideals will founder on their own impracticality.

Improving sustainability is a constant challenge, and we need assistance from
subscribers and other contributors in order to succeed.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Australian Financial Review Monday, July 12, 2004

Jakarta link set to improve

Geoffrey Barker

Australians can view the still uncertain outcome of the Indonesian
presidential elections with optimism, or unease. Indonesians will doubtless form
a similar view of the outcome of the Australian national elections when they are
held.

Given the strategic and economic importance of Indonesian-Australian
relations, it is not surprising that experts in both countries are now assessing
what they hope will emerge when all votes have been counted in their nations.

For Canberra, the best outcome in Indonesia would be a stable government with
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (or SBY, as Indonesians call him) as president. For
Jakarta, the best result would be an Australian government led by anyone but
John Howard.

Neither outcome is, as yet, certain. But there is little doubt in Canberra
and Jakarta that improvements in Indonesian-Australian relations will be limited
while Megawati Soekarnoputri remains President and John Howard remains
Australian Prime Minister.

Megawati is widely perceived in Australia as a do-nothing president who has
let Indonesia drift while she has played the role of a Javanese princess.

Howard is seen in Jakarta as the man whose troops presided over Indonesia's
loss of East Timor and whose record on Asian immigration and on asylum seekers
has affronted Indonesian sentiment.

It is privately acknowledged in both countries that Megawati has little
regard for Howard, and that Howard seems ill at ease with her.

Of course, the official line in Canberra and Jakarta is that the two
governments will work to advance relations with whomever is thrown up by the
democratic processes.

But it is a safe bet that Canberra was relieved when former general Wiranto,
who presided over widespread violence in East Timor, came in a distant third in
the first round of the Indonesian presidential poll. It is certainly pleased
with SBY's position after the first-round voting.

SBY may not be the economic reformer and anti-corruption activist that
Canberra would like to see in Jakarta's presidential palace, but he is regarded
as a decent, well-intentioned and conservative man who, despite some troubling
associations, is not hostile to Australia. His son is studying in Western
Australia.

Despite Jakarta's reservations about Howard, it is not necessarily hoping for
a Labor victory. Labor leader Mark Latham is largely unknown and Treasurer Peter
Costello has a good reputation for his work within Apec. Labor foreign affairs
spokesman Kevin Rudd is certainly regarded more highly than Foreign Affairs
Minister Alexander Downer.

For Australia, the Indonesian presidential election so far, and this year's
earlier parliamentary elections, have provided reassuring if ambiguous evidence
that Indonesia is moving towards stable democracy. The elections were the second
democratic elections to be held since the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998
and the first direct popular presidential elections in Indonesia's history.

There has doubtless been corruption from so-called "money politics"
and widely aired problems with voting papers. But the election process has been
calm and orderly and candidates have not trawled for votes by seeking to inflame
radical Islamic sentiment.

It is Australia's hope that the lead-up to the second round of the
presidential poll on September 20 will be similarly orderly and reassuring. That
may depend on what emerges from the byzantine political dealings now under way
in Indonesia and on how candidates judge the extent and power of radical
Islamist sentiment in the world's largest Muslim country.

Australians inclined to optimism will be reassured by the speedy, courageous
and public manner in which Indonesia pursued, prosecuted and punished the
perpetrators of the Bali outrage and their leaders. They will also be reassured
by the co-operation established between Indonesian authorities and Australian
federal police. AFP commissioner Mick Keelty has made invaluable contributions
to good relations between Australia and Indonesia.

It was, of course, in Indonesia's international interest to respond as it did
after Bali, but its vigour required a political and judicial will that has not
always been evident in recent years.

Moreover, the recent establishment of the Jakarta Central Law Enforcement
Co-operation Centre (an event for which Megawati arrived an hour late)
demonstrated Indonesia's willingness to fight transnational crimes like
terrorism and trafficking in drugs and people.

It is less easy to be optimistic about Indonesia's progress towards
overcoming political and institutional corruption.